Web managers meet fed new media superstars

Federal web managers have wrapped up their yearly Web Managers Conference, sponsored by the General Services Administration.

At the keynote presentation for the meeting, held at George Washington University's Marvin Center in DC, the webmasters Tuesday heard from two of the federal government's biggest new media superstars.

Vivek Kundra is the White House's newly appointed Federal Chief Information Officer and Director of E-Government and IT. He says, for the most part, that he sees the web managers at federal agencies as an important part of the Obama Administration's new media outreach to citizens.

A lot of people say the public sector shouldn't be an adopter of new technologies, that it hasn't been in the past, and so in the future, it can't be. It was 1995 when the National Science Foundation actually decided to move the Internet from DARPA, from research and military use, to the private sector and the public. So, from 1995 to 2009 seems like a long period, but it really hasn't been that long. But think about some of the laws and statutes that govern what we're trying to do here.

The Privacy Act was written in 1974. I was actually born in 1974! So one of the big challenges that we see, as we move forward, is to see in the context of one of the statutes, whether it's the Presidential Records Act, the Privacy Act, some of the other statutes and the technology, and provide a framework to protect the American people, which is really important. We can still innovate, we can still move forward in the context of those statutes, and we can still protect the privacy of the American people.

The other big name at the opening plenary of the conference was Mason Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House. He talked about his transition from heading up new media for the frenetic environment of the Obama presidential campaign, and then, following the election, to the more sedate and thoughtful, and yet equally pressure-filled situation of governing at the White House.

It was a very hard transition for me, and the rest of my team, going from the campaign, which was a million-miles an hour, to winning, to getting on a plane the following weekend, and coming to Washington, to figure out what this next challenge was. And it was a very frustrating experience at first, a very lonely feeling, because we really hadn't thought about government while we were campaigning.

Phillips went on to say that one of the first groups he contacted upon arriving here in Washington was Bev Godwin, Martha Dorris and Sheila Campbell in the federal web managers' community.

"It opened up a door into all the things that are happening in government," he explained, "and set a framework for a lot of our planning on what we were going to do in the White House." He says that included recruiting Godwin, who normally runs the Office of Citizen Services at the General Services Administration, and is now detailed to the White House New Media Office.

During the question-and-answer session, one federal web manager complained to Kundra that at his agency, "even though the website belongs to me, technically, I have to rely on the CIO shop. And in general, they're kind of like the 'no' guys, 'no you can't do this' and 'no you can't do that'." As he related his story, a number of his fellow web managers applauded in agreement.

In response, Kundra sympathized, but stressed that this is not one of those "black and white, cut-and-dried situations".

You know, I don't think the CIOs are waking up every day, and saying to themselves, "Let me figure out a way to say no to everybody!" That's not their default situation. They have legitimate issues that they have to worry about. Cybersecurity, compliance, with statutes that exist. Where I think we can move the conversation to be extremely constructive and positive is that we insure that we are engaging and helping. What I mean by that is, let's look at whether it's an issue of accessibility or privacy, because every time you haven't followed the regulations, and those regulations and statutes are there for a reason. And when it comes to the Privacy Act, they're (the CIOs) the ones who are going to be responding.

Kundra adds that the conversation, "doesn't have to be a zero-sum game. You can't just come up with a sexy new technology, and go 'live' with it. There has to be a very close relationship where we show the value of the technolgy, while at the same time looking at these statutes, and figure out how to insure we're not creating a digital divide, we don't put information out there that compromizes the American people. Because the easy fall-back answer is that one person is saying 'no' while another person is saying 'yes'."

Kundra pledged to make sure that agency web mangers have a seat at the table in discussions with CIOs to make sure that the people he says are on the "front lines" have their needs addressed.

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On the Web:
USA.gov - 2009 Government Web Managers agenda
USA.gov - Your Guide to Managing U.S. Government Websites '

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